SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump, facing protesters and a poor political climate, fought to rally Texas voters behind embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton on Wednesday night in a bid to stave off a blue wave in the nation’s most populous red state.<\/p>\n
Speaking to a packed Freeman Coliseum, Trump also clarified recent comments in which he appeared to suggest the bombing of an American city would be \u201ca small price to pay\u201d for the war in Iran. He said Wednesday that Iran might try to hit an American city with a missile.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them in Los Angeles,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president’s message was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, including by one who appeared to be close to the stage. In all, at least a dozen demonstrators interrupted the president. Some were led away by police.<\/p>\n
Trump stepped away from the microphone briefly after one interruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going back home to mom,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut what he doesn\u2019t know is his mom voted for Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican Party did not plan to devote so much money and manpower to Texas this midterm season.<\/p>\n
Texas is the nation\u2019s most populous reliably Republican state, where Trump won in 2024 by almost 14 percentage points. But with Election Day less than a month away, Trump\u2019s poor approval ratings, the Iran war and soaring gas prices have threatened Republicans in virtually every state.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s appearance marked Trump\u2019s third trip to Texas in less than a month, and party officials have devoted more than $300 million to elections in the state so far.<\/p>\n
In a sign of Trump\u2019s poor standing, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend the evening rally. A three-term Republican governor who won reelection in 2022 by roughly 11 percentage points, even Abbott has been caught in the turbulent national currents.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s locked in a competitive reelection race against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.<\/p>\n
Instead of appearing with Trump, Abbott was scheduled to headline the dedication of a hospital about 330 miles away. Democrats seized on the governor\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, Greg Abbott has never been shy about embracing Donald Trump, calling Trump a \u2018great friend\u2019 and championing his agenda every step of the way,\u201d said Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Long. \u201cBut now, as Texas families get crushed by record-high prices driven by Trump\u2019s tariffs and war with Iran, suddenly Greg Abbott has somewhere else to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the race for governor has drawn a sudden influx of cash from Democrats, the state\u2019s U.S. Senate race has drawn the most attention as Democrats fight for the chamber\u2019s majority. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, but candidate James Talarico\u2019s fundraising, Trump\u2019s low approval rating and nagging concerns about Paxton\u2019s character have put the race squarely in play.<\/p>\n
Trump spent most of his remarks focused on the Texas Senate contest, describing Paxton as \u201cperhaps the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was tough and he was with us all the way,\u201d Trump said of Paxton. \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump made no mention of the recently leaked recording of Paxton lamenting the war in Iran and rising fuel prices, while also complaining his campaign was being run by operatives in Washington.<\/p>\n
And while Trump praised Paxton briefly at the beginning of his remarks, he spent far more time attacking Talarico, whom he referred to repeatedly as \u201cTala-freako.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peoples reported from New York and Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump, facing protesters and a poor political climate, fought to rally Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[145,3496,392,2135,1967,23681,59373,59370,59371,59372,61260,61261,82,84,83,27,157237],"class_list":["post-459661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-donald-trump","tag-gina-hinojosa","tag-greg-abbott","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30109-ap-texas-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32510-ap-online-general-election-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-texas","tag-trump-texas-paxton-senate-protesters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}